Brexit to be given effect in UK national law in 8 UK Parliamentary Bills, by Christopher Muttukumaru (*)

Fide´s session 8th may

Last week, Christopher Muttukumaru covered a number of evolving issues in his article on the "Implications of the UK General Election for the Brexit Negotiations and beyond ". Specifically, he urged practitioners advising clients on commercial opportunities in the UK to take account of the difficulties of getting Brexit-related legislation passed in the UK Parliament with a very narrow majority and only with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party.

"Practitioners should now note the Queen's Speech subsequently delivered in the UK Parliament. The Queen, as constitutional monarch, sets out in each parliamentary session the bills which the UK Government will introduce for enactment by Parliament".

In his article, Muttukumaru mentioned the probability that three Brexit bills would be introduced, namely the Repeal Bill, a trade bill and an immigration bill. He also referred to the possibility that the UK would withdraw from the Common Fisheries Policy and, if so, the consequences for Spain's fishing interests.

In fact there are now 8 Brexit-related bills which will be introduced. The three bills above are in the Queen's Speech but, in effect, the trade bill has been split into a trade bill and a separate customs bill. The other four bills are: a Fisheries Bill, an Agriculture Bill, a Nuclear Safeguards Bill and an International Sanctions Bill.

The Fisheries Bill is described as follows: " ...the Bill will enable the UK to exercise responsibility for access to fisheries and management of its waters". In the accompanying notes, inter alia the Government says that the Bill will enable the UK to set its own quotas . There is no clarity about whether the UK Parliament will be asked to vote on the exercise of permitted jurisdiction over costal waters (12 miles-Article 3 UNCLOS) ) or an Exclusive Economic Zone (200 miles - Article 76 UNCLOS) .

(*) Muttukumaru, has been a member of Monckton Chambers in Gray's Inn in London since 2014. He was previously General Counsel to the UK Department for Transport where he was the Chief Legal Adviser to eight successive Secretaries of State for Transport between 2001 and 2013. As General Counsel he was also a member of the DfT Executive Board. Earlier in his career, he was principal legal adviser on EC Law issues in the Attorney-General’s office. He has been involved in advising Ministers on Public Law issues, as well as European and International Law issues, over many years. For example, in the Attorney’s Office, he was involved in the Factortame litigation; in DfT he handled the UK Government’s application for state aid approval for the funding of Network Rail; and, as Deputy Legal Adviser at the Ministry of Defence he was a senior member of the UK diplomatic delegation which negotiated the establishment of the International Criminal Court at the United Nations. Christopher was educated at Oxford University and is a Bencher at Gray's Inn (the Governing Council of the Inn). He was vice chair of the Advisory Board of the Law Faculty of City University (part of the University of London) for many years. Christopher has written extensively, and spoken in the UK and EU, about matters such as international legal cooperation and Brexit legal issues. Member of Fide´s Academic Council (based on London).